Ukrainian Minstrels: kobzari, lirnyky

Kobzari are folk professional minstrels unique to Ukraine. One thing that makes them special is the musical instrument which they play. This instrument is called a bandura and it developed out of the kobza, from which kobzari take their name. The kobza was a plucked symmetrical instrument similar to other European and Eastern lutes. Additional strings were gradually added to one side of this instrument so that it became more and more asymmetrical. At the time of the famous kobzar Veresai, the bandura had twelve strings; as it exists now, the bandura has more than 60 strings and is held and played more like a harp than like the kobza, other lutes, or earlier versions of the bandura.

Kobzari are special also because they were blind. Traditional kobzari were highly trained professionals. They were organized into church-affiliated guilds.

The most important item in this repertory was the religious song. Some of the most popular religious songs are the ones about Lazar (Lazarus), about the martyr Varvara (St. Barbara), about Oleksii, Man of God. There were also songs about the Last Judgement, the Passion of Christ, and related materials, such as the very popular song about an orphan girl. While scholars were most interested in the epics songs (dumy) performed by kobzari, the village audience valued the psalma or religious song.

Kobzari performed in a variety of venues. They would travel from village to village led by a guide called a povodyr. The povodyr was usually an orphaned or a poor child who worked for food, clothing, and a small wage. Upon arriving in a village, a kobzar would go from house to house singing the zhebranka. If he was invited inside, he would perform psalmy and whatever other songs his hosts asked for. Upon leaving and receiving his payment, he would sing the blahodarinnia.

Kobzari also sang outside churches and monasteries, especially during religious festivals when many people were present, and they would go to cities to perform at fairs or iarmorky. Kobzari, like other villagers, had small plots of land, were married and had families. Most minstrel children became farmers, just like their village neighbors.

Kobzari worked alongside lirnyky. Lirnyky are professional minstrels who were more numerous than kobzari. They often learned from kobzari and kobzari learned from lirnyky. Lirnyky were identical to kobzari except for one thing: they played a strikingly different musical instrument.

The lira, from which lirnyky take their name is a hurdy-gurdy. It has a crank-driven wheel which rubs three strings and produces a continuous drone. The melody is played by lifting keys which depress one of the strings. Because the lira is so different from the kobza and bandura, it is probable that kobzari and lirnyky were once separate categories of performers.

Lirnyky existed throughout Ukraine, into Russia and Western Europe. They are always pictured as blind. Kobzari mostly lived on the territory of the Hetmanate. There is also evidence that sighted kobzari existed in the distant past. This suggests that kobzari were once the minstrels of the military, specifically Cossack regiments.

Today there are many more kobzari than lirnyky. Many are sighted. Many play in bandura ensembles, continuing a tradition that allowed amateurs to learn how to play the musical instruments of professional minstrels, often under the guidance of kobzari, just as long as they did not use their knowledge to earn a living.

Most contemporary kobzari receive conservatory training rather than studying with kobzar masters. Pavlo Stepanovych Suprun is a contemporary blind performer who lives in Kyiv. He tries to continue and develop the traditions of old by singing epic and historical songs and by composing his own material in the traditional style. His best-known composition is Duma pro Chornobyl' which is based on a poem by Mykola Chychkan. (www.bandura.org)